International Women’s Day: A day in the life of… a cancer researcher
Victoria Sanz Moreno, PhD and group leader at King’s College London (KCL; London, UK)
Victoria started her independent research group with a CRUK Career Development Fellowship at King’s College London in the Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics to study transcriptional programs in melanoma metastasis. In 2015, she was shortlisted for the CRUK Communications and Brand Ambassador Prize for communicating science to the public through media work.
In 2017, Vicky was awarded the British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB) Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal. In July 2017, Vicky was awarded a CRUK Senior Fellowship to study the role of Rho-kinase in melanoma progression, dissemination and therapy response. In 2018, Vicky was badged Cancer Research UK Werth Trust Fellow.
My alarm goes off…
The first thing I do in the morning is have breakfast with my family. I then take my son to school which is located by a lovely park 10 minutes from home (Wandsworth Park). Then, I take the train to Waterloo and the tube to London Bridge. It takes me approximately 1 hour to do all of this. Before going to work, I make sure the house is left in good shape! Sometimes I manage to write a few emails.
I’m responsible for…
I direct a group dedicated to basic cancer research. On average the group is composed of ten individuals (postdocs, PhD students and Master students). I oversee and direct all the projects that are running in the lab. We are the Tumour Plasticity Lab which is embedded in the Cell Motility and Cytoskeleton Section within the Randall Centre of Cell and Molecular Biophysics at KCL. I direct PhD and Master students, I teach several subjects at KCL, I give seminars and talks at conferences and institutes in the UK and abroad. I review grants, scientific papers and Fellowships nationally and internationally. I am on the editorial board of several journals and I am part of more than ten Thesis Committees.
My typical day…
I normally meet with people in the lab on a weekly or biweekly basis. We also have lab meetings once a week in which a member of the lab presents their data to all of us. We also have external speakers coming to KCL. I may have to teach or have a thesis committee or meet with a collaborator. We do have a number of important collaborations within KCL, with the Francis Crick Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry s, The Institute of Cancer Research (London, UK)and University College London (all London, UK)and a number of students are co-supervised with researchers at those institutions, so I may be running around London too!
I have recently been to Zurich, Dublin, Berlin and Barcelona and I am soon travelling to Washington. Every time you go to a different city you have the opportunity of learning a bit more about the culture on each destination. I am excited about a conference I am going to in March, Mechanisms of Metastasis (12–14 March, Barcelona, Spain) it looks very interesting. A good thing about London is that there are plenty of good conferences happening just around the corner!
The strangest thing that has happened…
When I was pregnant I also was trying to establish myself as an independent leader. My interview for a CRUK Career Development Fellowship was scheduled the same day as my due date! So obviously they changed the date of the interview and I did it earlier than the rest of the candidates. I gave birth on a Thursday and on the Monday I received a phone call from CRUK that I got the Fellowship! I was over the moon; the two things I wanted most in the world were possible!
Ever since then, I had to find a way to balance work and motherhood. Probably key to me balancing these two demanding tasks is my husband, since he is very supportive. He is also a scientist so we try and help each other as much as we can. We try and make it fair for both of us. When we started a family (my son is nearly 8 now) we felt like we had to do everything together all of the time; now we do things on our own with Olly. That gives us a few hours on weekends to do our own extra things, but also allows us to have quality time with him.
Some interesting projects are lab is currently working on…
I think all the projects in the lab are very interesting, check out our webpage.
My lab works on understanding how the cytoskeleton and Rho GTPase signalling in cancer cells promotes tumour dissemination and metastatic colonization. We are interested in better defining how Rho GTPase signals are translated via transcription factors into appropriate pro-metastatic responses. The lab combines ‘OMICs’, state of the art microscopy in 3D matrices, molecular biology, animal models and patient information to identify molecular determinants driven by Rho GTPase signalling that correlate with cancer progression and metastatic potential. Furthermore, we are very interested on characterizing how the cytoskeleton in cancer cells controls tumour-stromal interactions. Our ultimate goal is to define if manipulations in the cytoskeleton of cancer cells will lead to improved efficacy of current therapeutic approaches in patients via transcriptional reprogramming.
The best part of my job…
Every day is different and you don’t know what new piece of data or new discovery is waiting for you next day!
The worst part of my job…
Obtaining funding and publishing our work are both very stressful and competitive activities. You need a high degree of resilience to withstand this.
After work…
I go home to have dinner with my family, hopefully spend a bit of time with my son before he goes to bed. I try to spend all my free time with my husband and my son or with our group of friends with kids. We find activities that we can all do together. More recently we started taking Olly to theatre and musicals. For example, we just went to the Flamenco Festival in London. We all love that!
I always wanted to be…
My parents always told me that whatever I did in life the important thing was to be happy. When I was at university I realized I wanted to be a scientist and contribute to society by doing research. If I had not been a scientist, I would have been something related to music or dancing.
What advice would you give to young women looking to pursue a career in cancer research?
Follow your dreams; if you really want to be a scientist don’t let anything or anyone stop you!
Who is your inspirational hero?
I am based at the Randall, KCL where Rosalind Franklin developed her seminal work on elucidating DNA structure. She is someone that inspires me because she was very brave and determined.
